Two Poems
“St. Louis: Prayer Before Dawn” by Richard Blanco
“Passing Death” by Barbara Kingsolver
A Poem
Poetry is Not My Favorite Today
by ljkemp
Poetry is not my favorite today as I put the finishing touches
on a teacher resource for National Poetry Month.
I wake to my own ritual to be faced with sadness
a poem of injustice and inequity
a poem of prayer for what is unfair
in our society, our country
and a poem of death
a mother, presumably a wife,
slipping into darkness, dying
as her family practices life without her
until a tumor takes her away.
I looked for brightness between the lines
meticulously dissecting the lines and words apart
under a microscope searching or the tiniest particles of joy
a description of those who live in comfort
sleeping past dawn with faces resting tender on pillows
the image of memories like seeds from a melon
squeezed out of a fist until nothing is left
but the sticky sweet cling of living.
The first a comparative description of the haves,
sleeping comfortably in peace and the have nots,
who try to rest uncomfortably under fluorescent lights
on commercial streets or on buses.
The latter a description of cancer
eating away at a woman’s brain.
I pause.
There seems no joy in these poems
words pouring through pain and heartache.
I pause.
It seems the joy is in the beauty of the words.
Poets who string together eloquent words
opening windows to the world- to their souls;
though inside there is hurt and death and injustice
and excruciating pain and anger,
the joy is that we have words and art and poetry
to share the human experience.
Italics: First line is from the Richard Blanco poem; the second is from the Barbara Kingsolver poem.
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